Monday, 28 June 2010

I have to admit to being useless over the weekend - I completely failed to do any baking whatsoever, and am hanging my head in shame as I type.

In my defence, it has been far too hot to go near the oven (I failed to do any cooking at all, unless adding extra toppings to a supermarket pizza counts?), and I've not been at home much the last couple of days either.

So please forgive me! I aim to make it up this week, having only this morning discovered a new recipe I have to try - I should have it tested, photographed & on here by the later part of this week. It looks like a good one!

I did not completely leave the kitchen behind me, however - my first order from Squires arrived on Saturday, very exciting!

Here's what I bought:

Only a small order, as it was rapidly approaching pay day, but not a bad little haul! 3 different cupcake cases (can't wait to try the ones in the front, they're gorgeous!), some edible glitter (a "whim" purchase), and some silver lustre dust. I have a purpose for this, but it's currently in the development phase so please be patient!

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

This might not seem so strange to most people, but I have spent the last 20-something years believing that I hated the stuff, and apparently this is no longer the case. Which is brilliant, as it has now opened up a whole new world of gorgeous-looking recipes that I no longer have to pass by! Life is good, no?

Anyway, to get to the point, a couple of weeks ago I spotted some gorgeous looking Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting on Browneyed Baker and my new-found love of the peanut stuff told me that I just had to try it.

Friday, 18 June 2010

One of my favourite cake toppings of all time has got to be cream cheese frosting! In fact, I'm not sure I can think of a frosting I prefer, so I might as well say it is my favourite!

I first experienced it on top of a carrot cake, which is its traditional home as far as I am concerned, and since then I've used it as a frosting for a number of different cakes & cupcakes. It's sweet yet salty-savoury flavour combination just seems to go so well with so many things! And the left overs in the bowl are always a welcome cook's perk. I have been known to make an excess "by accident" on more than one occasion...

These are a variety of cupcake I've wanted to try for a long time, so when I offered to make cupcakes for a good friend's housewarming it seemed the perfect excuse to give them a shot!

If you've never run across them before, red velvet cakes are a largely American phenomenon. They consist of a chocolate sponge coloured the most gorgeously rich red, hence the name. They are then, traditionally, filled and/or topped off with a generous amount of cream cheese frosting.

Anything with cream cheese frosting is bound to be good as far as I'm concerned, so naturally these had to be tried!

The first post in a new blog is always the hardest, so I thought I'd jump straight in with this one - my recipe for Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. A gorgeously light lemon sponge, topped with delightfully crispy meringue, and hiding a zingy, gooey lemon curd filling.

This is a recipe that is mainly my own, but was originally adapted from one for a Lemon Meringue Cake that was published in a BBC Good Food magazine about 3 years ago.

My apologies for the quality of the photograph - it wasn't taken in the best conditions!